Nicolas is a member of the broader international trade law and cross-border dispute resolution practice groups at PLL Legal. He regularly advises national governments and small and medium-sized enterprises on World Trade Organization (WTO) law, regional trade agreements, the relationship between trade and climate change, trade remedies law, e-procurement, and digital trade. He was particularly involved in bilateral consultations between the US and UK governments in the context of a Section 301 investigation opened by the USTR in response to the UK Parliament's adoption of the Digital Services Tax. He also participated in the negotiation of the free trade agreement between the UK government and the EFTA states.
Before joining PLL Legal, he built his career advising the Disputes Team of the UK Government’s Department for International Trade, dealing with litigations arising under the WTO Agreement and free trade agreements. Before that, he worked in the private sector for numerous leading global law firms. Notably, he was a Senior Associate at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP in Brussels and London, where he successfully defended a tobacco company against product safety enforcement actions brought by the Austrian and Czech authorities.He has also advised a multinational corporation on how to challenge a State's measure before a WTO panel, and a sovereign entity on how to re-design its legislation in line with WTO law.
He has also worked for McKenna Long & Aldridge (after the merger, DENTONS), where he was involved in over a dozen ad hoc international commercial arbitration cases adjudicated in Athens, Paris and London.
Nicolas was also co-counsel in two cases before the European Chemicals Agency Board of Appeal, as well as in private law cases before the Belgian and Dutch courts. He was also involved in two cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union.